


Living In a Powder Keg and Giving Off Sparks

by eeyore9990



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Dancing and Singing, Derek Hale is Bad at Feelings, Karaoke, M/M, Nobody is Dead, So Wrong It's Right, Useless Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 12:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3411218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeyore9990/pseuds/eeyore9990
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Ugh.  What a joke this night was turning into.  Sober at a karaoke bar.  Could Stiles' life get any more pathetic?</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Spoiler alert: It totally gets more pathetic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living In a Powder Keg and Giving Off Sparks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leela_cat (Leela)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leela/gifts).



> For Leela, my love.
> 
> I know your day wasn't what it should have been, but I hope you know how very much you are loved and adored. I'm a day late, and probably a fist full of dollars short, but… Happy Birthday.
> 
> I am so deeply sorry for the level of pure cheese in this fic. But it's written with deepest love and devotion, so. There's that.

The light hit Stiles square in the face, burning into his eyes and making him hiss and wince, throwing up a hand to block it out as much as possible. 

"Contestant one!" a voice shouted, and then the light went spinning away, leaving Stiles to stagger to his feet and make his way blindly to the platform all while trying to blink the black spots from his vision. People helped him along, laughing as he stumbled into them, probably thinking him too drunk to walk a straight line. 

Hah. Little did they know Stiles was out with the _pack_ for _pack business_ which meant no having _fun_. Or so Derek had decreed. And when it came to Derek's Decrees, even Scott in all his True Alphaness felt the need to succumb to the power of those eyebrows. 

Ugh. What a joke this night was turning into. Sober at a karaoke bar. Could his life get any more pathetic?

"And contestant two!" the DJ shouted into the microphone, making Stiles — and nearly every other person in the karaoke bar — wince and cover their ears.

Stepping up onto the rather shaky platform that was meant to be the stage, Stiles plastered an 'I'm-having- _so_ -much-fun' smile on his face and asked, "So what are we singing?"

"Oh, it's the best," the DJ teased with a smirk, turning his gaze behind Stiles and letting out a chuckle. "I'm probably going to end up with a black eye from this dude, but it'll be completely worth it."

Stiles knew right then, before he even turned around, who was shaking the little platform with every sullen stomp of his booted feet. With a bitten-back groan, he turned to confront Derek — of course it was Derek — and kept right on smiling, using his eyebrows to urge Derek to loosen up a little. Damn. Idiot was going to give the whole game away with his murder face.

"Hey, there," he said through gritted teeth, stepping forward and thrusting out a hand. "You must be contestant two. I'm Stiles, otherwise known as contestant one." Letting his eyes drag down Derek in appreciation, he let himself go, falling into character as 'slightly drunk college student Stiles.' Licking his lips, he stumbled forward, allowing himself to trip over the various electrical cords snaking across the performance platform, and caught himself with his sad little outstretched hand against Derek's abs. 

Hah. He'd probably end up with a sprained wrist from that maneuver, but… what had the DJ said? Oh, yeah. Totally worth it.

Even without werewolf hearing, Stiles could make out Erica's signature cackle from among the hoots and hollers rising from their adoring public. Stiles leaned around Derek and waggled his eyebrows as lasciviously as he knew how. Which was, honestly, pretty fucking lascivious.

As the DJ started warming the crowd up for them, Stiles hissed at Derek, "Come on, dude, seriously, you are going to scare the fucking vamp nest out of here if you don't get in character."

"I don't sing," Derek grumbled back, just in time for the DJ to thrust the microphone at him.

"Aww now," the DJ crowed, sharing a laugh with the audience, "I'm sure that's not true. Handsome guy like you. Plus, we've got a true classic for you two. What do you say, folks?! _Total Eclipse of the Heart_?"

There were a handful of confused faces in the crowd, but more than half shouted enthusiastic encouragement at the song choice and the monitors facing the stage flickered to life with the first few lines in a lurid pink. Glancing around, Stiles took note of the pack members: Allison and Scott with Isaac in the corner he'd come from, Lydia and Jackson sitting at a table with a bunch of people who looked just as douchey as Jackson. Erica and Boyd were sitting at a table with Cora and Kira and Malia was… sitting cross-legged on top of the bar, slamming back shots. Okay, then.

Since Peter had been left behind with orders to watch over Stiles' and Allison's dads and Scott's mom — and _they_ had been left behind with orders to keep a close eye on _Peter_ — that was everyone accounted for. Stiles just really hoped his dad and Scott's mom got through the night unmolested by Peter… Argent could take care of himself.

With an internal shrug, Stiles stepped up to the microphone and warbled out, "Turn around… every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming 'round." Then, his eyes flicking over the next line, he snorted with laughter and elbowed Derek in the side. "You next!"

Derek scowled, turned his attention to the monitor, and scowled harder. "Turn around," he intoned flatly. "Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears."

"I'll give you a shoulder to cry on!" someone in the middle of the bar shouted out. The best part? It didn't sound like any of the pack. Derek's man pain was simply that noticeable to even the general public.

Shaking with suppressed laughter, Stiles belted out the next line. "Turn around… every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by!" 

Expectant, he started to turn to Derek when a flurry of movement on the periphery of the crowd caught his attention. Looking up, he saw Allison struggling in some tall, thin dude's arms and Scott and Isaac wolfing out while more tall, thin people began drifting toward them out of the crowd.

Obviously, Derek saw it too, because he went from sullen and standoffish to Freddie fucking Mercury in zero point three seconds flat. "Turn around! Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes!"

As the crowd flinched from Derek's sudden enthusiasm, Stiles lifted his voice with Derek's and they sang out the next two lines together, trying to drown out the sound of the brawl taking place in the far corner of the establishment even as Boyd's group bounded across the bar to lend a hand. Stiles and Derek's efforts weren't enough, though; they were losing the attention of the people who didn't really know the song — or those who'd been dragged by their friends to a karaoke bar on a Friday night. Growing desperate, and with nothing but acoustics to listen to for a few seconds, Stiles frantically sought something to grab the crowd's attention. 

But Malia had obviously seen the same thing and was on top of it. Standing up on the bar, she began to sway her hips to the beat of the music and ripped off her shirt to show off the really nice black and red lace bra she was wearing. 

With Stiles' attention elsewhere, Derek picked up the musical cue right on time and crooned the next solo line while doing some sort of stilted dance himself. Not that the women closest to the stage had any problem with the rather wooden way he swung his hips, judging from the way they screamed for him, Stiles noted a little pissily. 

Not to be outdone, Stiles threw himself into the song, using Derek as his own version of a stripper pole. Without the stripping, of course, because in no version of reality could Stiles' pale, skinny chest compare to Malia's. When Derek grabbed his hips, Stiles moved with him, doing a teasing kind of slow dance on the spot as they used the same microphone to sing their back and forth lines.

When the crowd began to shout the lines of the chorus along with them, Stiles went a little lax with relief and leaned back into Derek, whose arm went around his middle, his hand dragging slowly over Stiles' stomach and rubbing until his undershirt was rucked up around his ribs and his entire waist was showing in all its pale glory. Seeing the way the crowd perked up at that, Stiles laid his head back on Derek's shoulder and twitched his hips, letting his eyebrows waggle until a table of what were probably soccer moms on a ladies night out began to scream for more.

"Stiles," Derek hissed in his ear, hand tightening on him.

"Mmm, yeah. Say my name, baby," Stiles muttered back, only flushing a little when the microphone picked it up.

To say the crowd went wild was a bit of an understatement, but Derek ignored them, spinning Stiles around and pulling him close. Over the sound of the song's long guitar solo, Stiles heard Derek say, "I need to go help—"

"Shut up and sing, you fucking moron," Stiles whispered so low he wasn't even sure if Derek's hearing would pick it up. "Right now, we _are_ helping by keeping the clueless human population… clueless. If they turn around and see a pack of werewolves fighting a nest of vampires, they are going to lose their shit. So just shut up and sing."

Pulling back, Stiles looked up at Derek to see if his message had gotten through. Derek was gazing off into the crowd, his forehead wrinkled in concern, so in desperation, Stiles did the only thing he could think of. He wrapped his fingers around the back of Derek's head and pulled him down into a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss. 

Hearing the guitar solo start to wind down, Stiles broke the kiss and stepped back, licking his lips nervously as he stared at Derek, trying to decide if he was going to have his throat ripped out in the next few seconds. But Derek just looked… sort of stunned, and sort of soft around the eyes in a way that Stiles had never seen before. 

"Turn around," Derek murmured, his voice a little husky and scratchy, like he needed to clear his throat or cough or something. "Every now and then I know you'll never be the boy you always wanted to be." And then his _hand came up_ , cupping Stiles' jaw, and the words took Stiles' breath away — especially since Derek wasn't even looking toward the monitors when he sang them.

Which was sort of impressive because Stiles was good, but he could barely remember the actual chorus of this song much less the individual verses. Craning his head around to see the next line, Stiles let out a low, heart-felt curse. Seriously, fuck this song with a brittle pinecone for being such a punch to the fucking gut. 

"Turn around," he sang on cue, then shivered as Derek's hand slid down his throat to wrap around the back of his neck. "Every now and then I know you'll always be the only boy who wanted me the way that I am."

Yeah, because _that_ was likely.

But then Derek nudged his chin up again, looked him right in the eyes when he sang about Stiles being _magical_ and _wondrous_ and Stiles maybe laughed just a little because that was some sappy shit, okay? And if he continued laughing right through his lines, not even able to turn around — hah, _turn around_ — to read them off the monitor, who could blame him? Derek was looking at him like he wanted nothing more than to strip him naked right here on the stage, and sure it was all an act, but it was an act that Stiles really had no problem playing out.

Just this once.

Just this once, he _wanted_ the act. He wanted to have this moment where Derek looked at him like this, with his eyes all soft and dreamy, and sang to Stiles about needing him tonight and forever and his love being a shadow and… whatever other shit there was about powder kegs and sparks.

Hah. _Spark._

Stiles knew it would all be over with the last note of the song, but he really didn't fucking care. He knew he was the distraction for the pack, so they could take care of the monsters of the week, and he. Did not. Care. 

So when the music turned slow and melancholy, he wound himself around Derek again and threw himself into the next kiss with everything he had in him. Because if he was going to have this, even just the super fake version of this, he was going to have it for as long as he was able. 

He was going to have Derek's big, square palm pressing into his lower back, dragging him close so that their hips fit tight together. Derek's tongue dragging over the sensitive skin just inside his lower lip and then sliding deeper to nudge up against his playfully. He was going to have Derek's fingers wrapped tight around the back of his neck, squeezing reassurance into his skin while the tip of his thumb stroked lazily against Stiles' earlobe, sending shivers down his spine. 

He was going to have his own hands full of Derek's arms and back. He was going to get to splay his fingers over the spot where Derek's tattoo swirled between his shoulder blades and then slide them up to tangle them in the short hair at the back of Derek's head. He was going to moan at the sensation of Derek's scruff scratching against his cheeks and feel the way Derek hardened in his jeans where their dicks were pressed right up against each other.

And he wasn't going to put any stock in that, because he did know better. But he was going to _know what it felt like._ He was going to be able to hold onto this memory. When, in years to come, the pack sat around teasing and poking at him and Derek for that time they made out in a bar while the rest of the pack fought off vamps, Stiles would be able to take it all with grace and waggling eyebrows and a half-hearted grin because he would have _this_ to remember.

As the music wound to a close, Derek broke their kiss and dropped his face to Stiles' throat, his back heaving as he dragged in breath after long, shuddering breath before murmuring Stiles' name.

"Yeah?"

"The pack?"

Stiles opened his eyes and cleared his throat, blinking slowly as he took in the sight of the DJ smirking at him and slow clapping for them both while saying something to the audience that Stiles couldn't hear clearly. His heart was pounding too hard in his own ears to hear much of anything other than… Derek's muffled voice.

Shit.

Looking around in a daze, he saw that the pack was gone, along with the vamps they'd been fighting. Even Malia was no longer in the bar, and Stiles had a moment to hope that she'd remembered to put her shirt back on before stepping outside. The last thing they needed was a public indecency charge this far outside of the influence of Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department.

"They're gone. Let's go."

Derek's hands tightened on him for a second before he nodded against Stiles' shoulder and let go, stepping back and rearranging his features into the set up Stiles was familiar with. What he wasn't used to was the way Derek grabbed his hand, threading their fingers together as he led them both through the crowd and out the door. Nor was he accustomed to the way Derek pulled him close as soon as they got outside and _kept him close_ even after they managed to locate the rest of the pack.

Apparently Stiles was the only one who found this anything to raise eyebrows at however, because even _Jackson_ didn't have anything to say about their joined hands or their closeness or the fact that Stiles probably had bruised lips and beard burn for days scratching up his cheeks and throat. 

Through the sound of his own confusion, Stiles heard Boyd report on the vamps, on how they were gone — 'heads ripped off' gone, which was really the only way to deal with those blood suckers — and then the pack broke up into groups to make their way back to their homes or to non-karaoke Friday night destinations. Only Derek tossed his keys to Erica and said something about not waiting up and turned to Stiles with that soft look on his face again and…

"What." It was one thing to be confused; it was wholly another to find himself in an alternate universe.

Derek blinked, a tiny grin twitching at the edges of his lips. "What?"

"What's going on? Why are you…" Stiles flailed his free hand toward their joined ones in a way that was actually far more meaningful than any words he could possibly come up with on the spur of the moment.

Derek lifted their entwined fingers, his thumb stroking over Stiles' bony knuckles. "That was my mom's favorite song," Derek finally said with a shrug, his eyes still trained on their hands. "She'd play it. _Constantly_. I probably knew all the words to it by the time I was five."

Stiles felt something cold and hard ball up in his stomach and he swallowed down the bile that tried to rise in his throat. "So, what? You think it was a sign or something?" Because for all that Stiles understood the need to find answers in the meaningless, he couldn't deal with something like _this_ , something he'd wanted _forever_ , hanging on the capricious whims of chance.

Derek snorted, rolling his eyes, and the ball began to melt. Just a bit. 

"Nah, that's… no. I just. You know, for the longest time, they were just words. Words that I could repeat from memory, but they didn't really mean anything. And then. I realized they did. You don't have to, but — I," Derek blew out a breath and lifted his gaze to Stiles'. "I trust you. And I… feel things for you—"

"Oh my god, stop. Holy shit, this is worse than torture for you, huh?" Stiles grinned, stepping into Derek and brushing their noses together. "We'll come up with a series of grunted sounds, a code word maybe, so you never have to talk about feelings again. That was just—"

"Stiles," Derek's whisper was firm, but there was a note to it that Stiles couldn't really pinpoint. It sounded a bit like he wanted to laugh, but this was _Derek_ , so…

"Yeah?"

Derek hummed and sang softly, "I really need you tonight." 

"I swear to fucking god, Hale, I'm going to—" Stiles didn't get to finish that thought though, because Derek stopped him with a kiss. And apparently…. 

Well, apparently forever was gonna start tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> Editted to add: For those of you unfamiliar with the song that is the entire basis of this fic, it's [Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvLNRO41o64).


End file.
